New Players in a Dangerous Game

Now it is the turn of myself and this Checkers person. I'm quite interested in how this turns out. She's a completely unknown quantity to me--I've never heard of any species remotely like hers either on Terra or my native Earth, and my studies have been fairly extensive. Clearly, she's built for flight rather than physical strength. She also seems to have a broken wing, so you would think that this would be a fairly easy battle. On the other hand, as I noted, she is a completely unknown quantity. So we'll see. Both my wives kiss me in succession, and I try to return their love and not seem cold, although my uneasiness may have held me back somewhat. Well, as they say on another world, let's get ready to rumble...

Checkers:

This is not going to be an easy fight by any means. Not only do I still have a broken wing (although I might not necessarily be able to maneuver all that well in this part of the cavern anyway) but I haven't had very much experience with magic, nor do I especially want to. Not to mention the fact that he comes from a completely different culture from mine and his magic may be of a kind I've never even heard of. However, I'm probably better suited to a battle like this than most people in my village would be. Most people would either dismiss magical threats or react with reflexive paranoia. This would play well into the kind of strategy that this game allows mages to use. I'll keep an open mind and not trust my senses too much, but I'll try not to become too paranoid either. Still, I'm uncomfortable with having to fight with my injuries and I say so to the two Astras.

"Part of the point of the challenge is seeing what you can do with what you have. People have fought and won in the challenge of the necklace with such injuries before," says Astra C. "In fact, Lord Frederigo just won his battle against Jenny Elf with an injured leg, although his injury was less serious in degree than yours."

"That's true," I say, a little humiliated. "I didn't realize that--for us Gliders, an injured leg is a much less significant injury than an injured wing. I can see how it would be different for anglideri such as you. I'm sorry. But it does seem that I'm operating a bit of a disadvantage, because... Well, you don't seem to be totally unbiased toward Jarlath. I'm not meaning to attack you, of course, just point out a potential difficulty."

"Perhaps not," says Astra, smiling wryly. "However, that won't be a substantial obstacle. I would be sinning greatly and unworthy of those who had faced this challenge before me if I did not do my best to judge objectively. The other Astra is also judging, and she wouldn't be prejudiced toward him. And if anything, I'd be prejudiced against him winning--if he wins, I might very well have to face him in battle later. Also, he can be rather irritating at times."

Jarlath laughs. "I could perform a healing spell on Checkers if it's not too much of a problem--although it might take a while because I've never encountered a being with her physiology before." I'm surprised at this--I supposed I hadn't expected a mage like him to have as much heart as he has. I'd expected that he'd turn out to be someone more like Belboz--not in his motivations and more unpleasant aspects, perhaps, but in his demeanor and way of looking at the world. I was even surprised that he was young. From the legends we have about wizards, they all seem to be old men since birth. Then again, he did seem to be holding back a bit somehow when he kissed the two women(!), but I'm somewhat surprised to see him involved with a woman at all, let alone two. Then again, he comes from lands very distant from ours, not to mention being a completely different species. His ways are clearly not mine.

"No, Jarlath," says Astra. "At least, not until the round ends. As I said, part of this test is to see how well the combatants can perform while people are operating under disadvantages. I wish you both luck." She drops the rag. This is clearly going to be a difficult battle, but I'm prepared. I'm sure I'll think of something to do--after all, it's not only mages that are capable of trickery...

Meanwhile, in another universe... Belinda:

"I'm sorry," I insist with all of the presence of mind I can manage (which isn't much, considering that I've currently been changed into one of the dragon's pet rabbit creatures so that we could infiltrate Vaeren's castle and am rapidly losing my intelligence as a side effect of the spell), "but I'm afraid that our master the dragon requires that all prisoners we capture should be brought back to him." Vaeren only smiles at this. I can see he's not convinced. Damn it! It was bad enough when Carola and I were imprisoned by the Dragon to give him a hold over our sister so he could force her to fight for him (even though he kept us in the lap of luxury). We finally escaped him a few days ago with the help of an Lord Frederigo D'Honaire, Allarian knight who'd come to slay the dragon once and for all. I wish I knew what had happened to Astra. Did she and Frederigo finally kill that damned dragon or are they still slogging around the caves? (I'm sure the dragon hasn't gotten Astra yet--she's much harder to kill than that.) When Astra sent us off, we were a bit angry because we didn't get a chance to help her kill the dragon ourselves. Now... Well, I for one would have liked to go on that quest, but only because it would have been a hell of a lot less complicated than the one I'm on now.

It started simply enough, I suppose. Carola and I had managed to escape but were soon recaptured while bathing by minions of the dragon. We were then rescued yet again, this time by two young men, Matthias Fyregryphon and Jarlath D'Honaire, who were training at the academy of the Adventurer's Guild to be a warrior and wizard, respecitvely. (And yes, Jarlath was the brother of the same Allarian noble who'd rescued my sister. I know it sounds like a silly coincidence, but that's how it happened.) They were on a quest to kill the dark wizard Vaeren (which I later found out they'd taken under their own initiative without the approval of the Academy). Since the Dragon traded frequently with Vaeren and we knew about his trade routes, we offered to help out. Although they were nice enough, they were typical Allarians and thought at first that because Carola and I were women it would be too dangerous on a quest like this--although at least they had the good sense to come around when we showed that we knew how to use weapons and were every bit as experienced as they were. Then...

Well, if it had just been the quest to fight Vaeren that we'd gotten involved in, that wouldn't be so bad. It would be bad, but not so bad. But then we decided to use one of the trade routes that would be less traveled by the dragon's minions because it had a reputation for being dangerous for reasons that weren't quite clear to us. As a result, we ended up getting captured by this cabal of mysterious and very powerful wizards called The Guardians. They apparently believed that there was some massive impending danger to the whole world caused by someone trying to steal a powerful artifact called the "Pyramid of Balance" and reshape reality and only Carola could stop it. They put Matthias, Jarlath and I under the curse so that if we abandoned the task of helping Carola protect it we'd age a year for each day we did so. The Guardians then forced Carola to actually swallow the artifact (no kidding). Then we were attacked by the being we were supposed to stop--a horrible masked being called The Brazen Man--but he was driven away by the power of the Pyramid and/or the Guardians. Well, they let us go but naturally enough didn't tell us anything about how we were supposed to stop the Brazen Man. We were supposed to rely on the limited knowledge of the future that the Pyramid would give Carola. So we decided to finish our quest to stop Vaeren until she recieved some kind of insight.

So with all of that hanging over our heads, we went off to deal with Vaeren. We hoped it would be easy. Naturally, things got complicated pretty quickly. It turned out that contrary to what Carola and I had expected, Jarlath and Matthias had charged off to fight Vaeren without any kind of plan whatsoever. Jarlath got the idea of turning me and Matthias into rabbit warriors like the ones that served the dragon and guarded us during our capitivity in the caves. But since he was an inexperienced mage, this meant that we'd suffer from the side effects of the spell that the dragon knew how to counteract, namely that we'd gradually lose our intelligence until the spell wore off in a week. We were pretty sure that we could defeat Vaeren quickly before then, but it's not looking like that right now. At least, I think, things can't get much more complicated than this...

That's when the air around us is ripped apart and something comes through.

They are beings made of gold or gold-plated metal crisscrossed by strange patterns of metal and wires, humanoid but vaguely serpentine. Vaeren is clearly astounded and enraged. Should I try and kill him while he's confused, or take this new enemy first? Astra probably would have made a decision by now, and there would have been at least some chance it would have been the right one, but before I can decide the metal serpent lashes out at the sword in my hand and snaps it in two. Taking advantage of what I've got, I jam the stub of the sword into the metal serpent's ruby-like eyes, but it doesn't make a dent. It lashes out at me with its tail and I hit the floor. I can see that other metal serpents have appeared and are fighting my friends and Vaeren. I can't get much of a sense of the battle around me without losing track of the one I'm fighting. Did the Brazen Man send these things, I wonder? Some saviors of the world we're making. I dodge its punches only barely. I probably could have handled it if my reflexes weren't dulled by the rabbit warrior spell, but I find myself being worn out rapidly. The thing's eyes are shining, and I feel all the energy fall out of me. I failed. I failed my sister, my friends, my country...

Castellan:

The automatons are relayed here through the slipgate. They have successfully captured the woman who is or contains the potential power source and the three others who are somehow bound to her matrix, as well as killed the dark wizard who got in their way. I am still not quite sure of the nature of the geis that seems to bind these four together, although I'll have an opportunity to examine it in more detail, but it is convenient as hooking up the other three to my array will allow me to connect more fully to the very alien power source that seems to reside within this woman.

One potential problem is that the older two are under some crude transformation geis that might interfere with the arrays. After examining it for a moment, I then decide that I might turn this to my advantage and transmute that geis so that the two are transformed into Terran manimals. This would actually improve the functioning of the arrays, since both were created using Atlantean technology. In fact, both were created with Atlantean technology by Minestus analogs with delusions of godhood, although the Minestus of this world is pursuing it through ill-thought-out and nebulous ideas about controlling "the primal essence of reality" through slipgates (perhaps possible, but not the way he intends) rather than through the more conventional route of creating new species.

The two are hooked into the transformation array by my automatons. Their current matrix is close enough to that of Terran manimals that it takes mere minutes to transform them properly. The man has become a wolf manimal while the woman has become a cat manimal. (I am somewhat curious as to what factors cause people to transform into certain subspecies of manimals--I shall investigate the data later, when my current project has finished.)

I now direct my automatons to plug them and the boy into the arrays. Handling how to incorporate the woman will take more work due to the alien nature of the power within her. I had expected Atlantean technology, but this is unlike anything I've ever heard of in my life! I use the biodata indicators to attempt to read her past in order to obtain some more clues to its nature, but that simply makes the issue all the more puzzling. It seems to have been implanted in her at some point in the last few days, but it isn't clear how. It seems that several hours of her timestream have somehow been removed or blacked out! This will certainly prove a problem, but I am sure to solve it before the Champions can uncover Minestus's deceptions...

Checkers vs. Jarlath

So hmmm, what do I do first? Checkers makes me feel a little uneasy--not because I feel a threat from her, but because her presence makes me feel... A little more uncertain than I usually do, perhaps. Not surprisingly, perhaps, as she is a member of a completely different species from any I've seen. I have no understanding whatsoever, period, of her culture, physiology, or psychology. Maybe I'll let her make the first move, so I can get a measure of her.

Most of the past combatants seem to have dived into battle immediately, but Jarlath seems to be holding off a bit. Not surprisingly, considering how little he must understand me--I'm starting to realize that I'm as much of a stranger to him as he is to me. Well, I'm not making a move either yet, for much the same reasons...

Hmmm, this seems to be turning into something of a standoff. It's all a little frustrating--I can be impatient at times, even after what it has cost me in the past. Can Checkers hold out longer than me? We'll see. It's so frustrating going into this without any idea of what to do... There's so much pressure oon me. I'm tempted to look back in the audience, at my wives... I remember Astra's fight with Tarin earlier and then I remember Tarin's screaming fit to cause an earthquake, and then I get an idea... It certainly would have disoriented most of his opponents. Perhaps I should take a page from his book. Perhaps I should throw some short-term disorientation and maybe a sonic blast at her (not loud enough to deafen her permanently, of course) and see how she reacts... I begin to perform a spell...

Jarlath begins to utter some words in a language almost but not quite entirely unlike Dolomite. I make a move to block his hand gestures, which must be an integral part of his spell. Then, I feel oddly, and then...

1. What? How can this be happening...

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